Personal Update

So, this month has seemed to be pretty much all about fundraising and raising funds and getting funding. At first I was going to end the giveaway this week but I've decided to extend it until the end of the month. Then we can do a fun little Halloween night drawing for prizes! Also, can I say how excited I am about Halloween? I love the fall. I love how it marks the start of the holiday season and how there's a change in the temperature. I'm really looking forward to a pumpkin carving/bonfire/s'mores night with friends next week. We're also planning a corn maze/petting zoo/corn box/hayride/ more s'mores day in early November. Maybe I'll work some hiking in the North Georgia mountains in before Thanksgiving too. Now is the best time to go while the leaves are changing color.

Today is my one of the few days that I have off where I can actually get some things accomplished around the house. Right now that means filling out 501(c)3 paperwork and reading articles for school. I'm working on my integrated project for school which is basically a doctoral thesis without conducting the actual study. That means about 30-40 articles for the lit. review alone. Good thing I like the topic (for anyone interested I'm researching Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder in children adopted from Eastern Europe and Russia and how that contributes to parental stress and attachment).

Everything with school, internship, and charity seem to be kind of just creeping along at a somewhat consistent pace. Of course I would like to fast track everything but I've been trying to rein myself in, especially over the last couple of days. I realized that if I keep up the stress and worry then I'll just end up having a melt down (never pretty).

Other things of interest...my dad is getting a new car, I busted my hand on the door frame last night when I literally jumped out of bed at the sound of the outdoor cat fighting with another cat or maybe a opossum at 3:45 in the morning, and I'm still knitting. Evidence:

Socks for charity.

Big puffy multicolored blanket of awesome. Also for charity.

I went to see Looper a couple of weeks ago with my brother and sister-in-law. Highly recommend the movie. Also, we went to the rich people's movie theater so the seats were these big leather recliners. Seriously. It was awesome.

I can never watch movies in a regular theater again.

 Oh, and I made an apple crumble. It was the best thing I've made in a long time. I ate it every day for breakfast for a week.

It's ok to be jealous.

It's been kind of fun talking about random stuff in life. Maybe I should that more often...

P.S. Don't forget to enter the giveaway! I'm doing the drawing on Halloween night.

Thank You From Sliven, Bulgaria

No, I'm not in Sliven, Bulgaria. But I wanted to send out thank yous on behalf of the orphaned and abandoned children there. They may never know the many individuals who made it possible for them to have pajamas and socks this winter but I do and I want to say a huge "THANKS!" to the people who have come together and donated:

Beth, Ash, and Will M.
Laura A.
Barbara C.
Derek C.
Jessica S.
Loriann F.
Melissa G.

These 9 people have helped us cover nearly 80% of the shipping cost of the pajamas and socks.

I decided to pull a few pictures from the Special Helping School's Facebook page so you could see first hand the kids who will be enjoying the donations.

Source

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If you are still interested in helping, every penny you donate to our giveaway will go to helping orphans, specifically the ones at the Special Helping School. And you can win some incredible stuff! All the items except for the iPod Nano are handmade in Romania, another Eastern European country with many orphans in need of help. Check out the goodies below and, if possible, share this giveaway with friends. There are only a few more days to enter!

 

 

 

If you cannot see the donation button above please email me at info@eerop.org to find out how to enter. You can also send a Paypal donation to melissambrown@hotmail.com to enter the giveaway.

Upping the Ante

As you may already be aware, the Eastern European and Russian Orphanages Project is trying to raise some money towards a large shipment of pajamas and socks. These necessities were sent to the Special Helping School in Sliven, Bulgaria as part of our partnership with the Linda McDonald Foundation. All 100 sets of pajamas and 100 pairs of socks were graciously donated by the Molnar family of North Carolina.

We've had our Paypal widget up for awhile now but it's time to up the ante. We're turning this into a giveaway.




















To enter all you have to do is donate using the button above (if you are using a smartphone you will have to log on using a computer to see the widget, sorry) or you can email me at info@eerop.org and I can get you the info on how to donate*.

For every $5 you donate your name will go into the drawing 1 time. So, $5=1 entry, $20=4 entries, $50=10 entries, and so on.

What can you win? Glad you asked...

Two people will be entered to win a miniature incense burner and candle. They measure about 2 inches in real life and are from Romania.

One person will be entered to win a hand painted egg from Romania. This is a real egg and is incredibly decorated.

One lucky winner will get a hand carved, hand painted mini wooden plate (about 2.5" across). Again, all the way from Romania.

Another lucky person will get a BEAUTIFUL hand carved wooden box. 100% Romanian craftsmanship.

Next we have some hand blown Romanian glass ornaments. There's a simple glass bulb, a teal colored heart, and a small water bulb (you put water in it and stick it in a plant to automatically water it just the right amount). These will go to three separate winners.

 

The final "grand prize" isn't from Romania but I think it's pretty nice. It's a brand new iPod Nano.

Yeah, brand new. The little green tabs are there to prove that I haven't even taken the protective film off of it. These typically retail for about $125. And I'm giving it away.

Please consider donating, please share the word with your friends, please put a widget on your own website. This is all about helping orphans and vulnerable children.

I may not be able to save all the children but I will continue to try and ease their sorrow with gifts, as best I can. - Roger Dean Kiser 

*Any monies raised above and beyond the $575 total will go towards my next trip to Romania where I will be working with orphans.

I Feel a Change in the Wind

Tonight a great meeting of the minds happened at the Mellow Mushroom just down the street. Me and my friend and tech guru Albert got together to discuss some changes that are in the works. I mentioned briefly at the end of Tuesday's post that there are going to be some changes to the blog soon. Albert has been hard at work designing a new logo for Vivid Creation Fibers and also working to mesh the blog and the store. Next Saturday we'll be moving everything to the www.vividcreationfibers.com site. What does this mean for you, the reader? Well, thankfully it seems that none of my old blog posts will go away. And I should be able to update from Blogger and export to the new website. The layout will be a little bit different but no drastic changes. The biggest thing is going to be making sure that the whole process goes smoothly and making sure that, if need be, we put up redirection links. Now it will be easier for people to get from the shop to the blog or vice versa. There will also be a link to my charity group on Ravlery. The hope is that everything will be more streamlined and cohesive.

To show my thanks for bearing with me through this whole process I'm going to offer a little giveaway. There will be 5 prizes up for grabs:

(from L-R): 1 skein of Captain Planet BFL sock yarn, 1 skein of Trick or Treat BFL sock yarn, a copy of Fabulous Felted Hand Knits, a copy of dominKNITrix, and a copy of the Big Book of Knitting

Contest rules will be explained on the day of the new blog/shop launch which is set to be May 1st. Until then keep checking back for updates!

Another thing we had contemplated with the change of the blog and the shop is that I might change my Twitter and Ravelry name. I thought it might be helpful to sort of tie everything together. What are your thoughts on this? Should I stay thekniftyknitter or should I change to reflect my upcoming re-branding?

Love Yarn?

Of course you do. Otherwise you wouldn't be reading this blog. Ok, maybe you don't like yarn or knitting but you love me so that's why you read. But if you do love yarn then you should run, not walk, but run over to Knit Purl Gurl's blog and enter her super awesome WEBS yarn goodie giveaway! P.S. How am I just now hearing about Knit Purl Gurl? She has a super fab blog set-up. I know this is just a shameless way to earn me another entry in her contest but, dang it ya'll!, it's about time I won something.

P.P.S. I'm counting this as a "yarn" related blog post because, well, I'm still waiting on yarn, needles, and motivation in order to make any real headway on my knitting. Plus I didn't post on cleaning out my fridge. Oh wait, I just did. Dang.